Lighted signs for use on the exterior of a house or other type of building are well known. These signs generally comprise a casing having a light therein which projects through transparent portions of a front panel to outline the street number of the building. Persons paying social calls or visiting to transact business at a residence after dark in an unfamiliar neighborhood generally locate the house by the street number; these lighted door signs facilitate the finding of a specific location. Even with these illuminable signs, finding a particular residence may be quite difficult, especially if the house is set well back from the street, such that the sign numbers are difficult to read, or if the numbers are partially obscured by trees or bushes.
There is also a need for an inexpensive method of quickly alerting passersby of an emergency existing in a home. While numerous burglar or fire alarm type devices which sound remotely in a fire or police station are available, these are very costly for the average homeowner. In many neighborhoods, full time security guards patrol the streets after dark to ward off intruders and to answer emergency calls. In many cases, the security cars are not radio equipped and must therefore return to a home base to obtain these calls. A need exists for a method of summoning such security guards visually from the home. In addition, if an emergency vehicle such as a police car, fire engine, or ambulance responds to a house call, there is a need for a device which will immediately inform the drivers of the vehicle which residence made the emergency call.
As indicated above, signs having lighted street numbers are well known. For example, Pinkus, U.S. Pat. No. 1,806,915, McCann, U.S. Pat. No. 2,157,772, and Gurian, U.S. Pat. No. 3,212,080 all disclose sign boxes having lighted street numerals in combination with door bells. Lazar, U.S. Pat. No. 3,360,791 discloses an illuminable street sign having the light therein operable either from inside the house or from a post located near the street. However, none of these devices have the ability to immediately alert either a social visitor or an emergency vehicle that they have found the correct residence.
Alarm-type devices are also known; in addition to the standard remotely sounding signals already mentioned, several alarms have been disclosed which are visually observable near the location of the emergency. For example, Pijakowski, U.S. Pat. No. 1,700,950, describes an audio/visual alarm indicating that help is needed on the inside of a building. Clardy, U.S. Pat. No. 3,599,201 discloses a tubular ground-anchored lamppost having audio and flashing visual alarms, actuable from inside a home, to signify an emergency. This system is substantially more complex and expensive than applicant's device, and does not serve to illuminate a house number.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an illuminated door sign for display of street numbers which is relatively simple and inexpensive, and which contains a flashing device for flashing the light therein on and off to alert passersby searching for the house.
It is another object of the invention to provide an illuminated door sign which contains a selectively actuable flashing red emergency light.